Last season’s “American Idol” finale was a battle between country singer. The biggest star ever from the show, who also returned to perform on the results show Thursday night is that sweetheart of Nashville, Carrie Underwood.
But there will be no country singers in this season’s “Idol” finale, or in the final four.
Skylar Laine, the country mainstay of the Top 13, was eliminated from the finalists Thursday after a tricky night doing 60s rockers.
She was at first thrown for a loop, intending to sing the bar band standard “Knock on Wood” before she was talked into something with more of a twang, the Creedence Clearwater Revival song “Fortunate Sun.”
While she reved up on the song with her big pipes, it was clear she didn’t have a clue what she was singing about or the intent of John Fogarty’s angry rejoinder to Vietnam era.
Her other song, the Dusty Springfield hit “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” fared better, but it, too, was undone by its stagecraft, including a park bench with a random couple on it.
Her ouster means an evenly divided final four of two guys and two girls, though in the bottom two with her was one of those women who couldn’t have had a better night vocally, Hollie Cavanagh.
With her in the final four are Jessica Sanchez, Joshua Ledet and Phillip Phillips. They’ll be singing songs associated with California next week.